( L - R ) Olmert, Ahmadinejad

JERUSALEM (AP):

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert told a powerful parliamentary panel yesterday that Israel would leave all options open to block Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, a meeting participant said, his clearest indication yet that he is willing to use military force to quell Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

"Israel clearly will not reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran,'' the meeting participant quoted Olmert as telling parliament's powerful Foreign Affairs and Defence Committee. "All options that prevent Iran from gaining nuclear capabilities are legitimate within the context of how to grapple with this matter.''

The meeting participant spoke on condition of anonymity because the session was closed.

A threat to the world

Olmert addressed the panel just days after discussing Iran's nuclear ambitions in face-to-face talks with U.S. President George W. Bush in Jerusalem. During that visit, Israeli officials disputed the conclusions of a U.S. report that Iran halted its nuclear weapons programme in 2003.

In Jerusalem, Bush declared that Iran remained "a threat to world peace", but reasserted his commitment to trying to resolve the standoff over Iran's nuclear programme diplomatically.

Israel, which sent warplanes in 1981 to demolish an unfinished nuclear reactor in Iraq, advocates a diplomatic solution of the Iranian face-off as well. But in his comments to the parliamentary committee yesterday, Olmert said, "It's clear that Israel won't reconcile itself to a nuclear Iran. We reject no options a priori.''

Israel considers Iran to be its most dangerous enemy and rejects Tehran's insistence that its nuclear programme is designed to produce energy.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad repeatedly has called for wiping the Jewish state off the map, and Iran possesses long-range missiles that are capable of striking Israel and can be fitted with nuclear warheads.

Meir Javedanfar, an Israel-based Iran analyst, said Olmert refused to rule out a military option "in order to increase the urgency to find a diplomatic solution''.